


Preparations

by keysburg



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Makeover, Manipulation, Not Beta Read, Terraforming, via physical environment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 05:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11913798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keysburg/pseuds/keysburg
Summary: Now that he's finally created his true offspring, Ego needs to contemplate the best forms to impress Peter.  The human avatar is easy.  The rest will take some thought.(When Ego talks about all the effort he went through to find the proper form to suit Peter, he means a lot more than making himself look like Kurt Russell.)





	Preparations

When he first heard a half-Terran had held an Infinity Stone, it was like a shock had gone through Ego’s entire being. He could see spots, which was just wrong. He didn’t see so much as sense the particles around him: those that belonged to him, and those nearby that were alien to him. His entire existence was an out-of-body experience, but this sense of disconnectedness was new. 

It didn’t last very long, which was fortunate. The story needed to be confirmed. He must have collected a hundred accounts before he let himself believe. His son was out there, and he carried the light. Of course it was the son of his River Lily, but he wouldn’t think about why. Ego needed to find his offspring, and convince him to help.

But before that, he needed to prepare. Ego had never bothered to make his outer layers inviting before. They were there not to look pretty, but to protect him--and the light at his core. After discovering other life, it had been easy enough to design his layers to be hostile to it. He drew water away from the surface and built rocky spires that discouraged landing parties. He altered the elliptical orbit of his planet to skim closer to his suns on the narrowest passes. Not enough to cook his core with radiation, but enough to make the surface too hot for carbon-based life forms and too marginal for silicone-based ones. 

When he began his mission to create a true heir, he sculpted a cave that was large enough to land a small ship. Its dense roof could protect other life for a time and prevented it from being observed from above. This was where he had directed Yondu to bring his offspring. When he had found Mantis, he had created her a cavern of her own. First it held only pools of fresh water, a small opening providing sun to support some algae inside them. Then her larval form molted to adult and she crawled from the pool. So he added a garden of plants for food and a small house for her to live in. He sent his avatar to visit her there when he needed to rest.

So his true body was functional, but it wouldn’t do to greet his true heir, the son of his essence as well as his body. Now he had to create the opposite: something inviting. Ego started to add a new layer over his outer self, a blank slate, while he pondered what it should look like. Peter had apparently been traveling among the galaxies, seeing all its wonders for years, thanks to Yondu’s treachery. Ego would have to think of something really spectacular to impress him.

Or maybe not. Peter had also lived aboard a grimy Ravager ship for most of that time. Maybe the key was not to outdo the rest of the universe, but to make something suitably grand and just a little familiar.

Ego hadn’t thought about Terra--about Missouri--for a long time. He could still remember how it felt, though. He would make that for Peter's more limited human senses, only better. There, rolling hills were covered with tall living columns of dense matter that pulled water skyward. Meredith had called them trees. They would be taxing to produce. He’d just make a few, for drama. The hills of Missouri had given way to vast plains, and all of it was absolutely drenched in chlorophyll. To produce that he had to smooth out his orbit a little, and draw water back to his surface. He created falls and pools of water for contrast against the surface.

He rearranged a few things to hold chlorophyll molecules and felt it spread over him. While Ego added colorful, flower-like growths, the oxygen level is his atmosphere spiked. He drew in nitrogen to balance it out. Too much oxygen might be harmful, but a little extra would give his half-Terran offspring a little rush, make him a little giddy. While he was at it, he added a few more compounds to the air that would produce a sense of relaxation in Terran biology.

Now, for the impressive part: while his offspring carried the light, he had a very real physical body to maintain. It needed shelter, and Ego needed a way to display his ideas for Peter’s visual sense. Ego based his halls on the palaces of Earth, using their scale and proportions. Columns. Windows. Then he added the texture the Ravagers labored to create, in metals and stones considered precious to all Terrans. It had everything Peter would expect: living quarters, flows of fresh water for decoration and for drinking. And a great hall, where Ego would display his adventures, although his would be represented by more than dead animals or a motley collection of items. Instead he would display his whole story in a way Peter could understand. His offspring might have the light, but he didn’t have the benefit of millions of years of self improvement. Ego could explain things so he’d understand.

When it was nearly ready, Ego launched a pod ship with Mantis and his new avatar aboard. In contrast to terraforming himself, his human avatar had been easy to create. He just started with what had caught Meredith’s eye and added the appropriate years and gravitas. He looked at his real body through his avatar's eyes, and decided it needed yet more color. As his pod sped away, he added bubbles. They looked like those created by the children of Terra with their soapy compounds, a wand and their breath. Then he changed the rotation of his self so that twilight would last as long as possible on his surface. Earthlings were so enamoured with their sunrises and sunsets. 

He was ready. Now he only had to find the other part of himself.


End file.
